The Washington Post was ecstatic. Having won six Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, it featured the news on the front page of yesterday’s edition, accompanied by a photo of applauding Post staff. And they certainly deserved credit – the half-dozen prizes were the second-most won by a newspaper since the annual awards began in 1917.
But one thing was missing in the Post photo: a newspaper. There’s a computer screen in the foreground, being watched by the applauding staffers. And a TV in the background. But there wasn’t an actual newspaper to be seen.
The photo says a lot about the changing face of journalism, and the rise of electronic media. The traditional newspaper is quickly losing ground to newer forms of communication, notably the Internet. Only two weeks ago, the Newspaper Association of America reported that print advertising had plummeted in 2007 by almost 10 percent, the largest one-year drop ever.
But despite these changes, the Pulitzer remains largely a paper-and-ink affair, limited mostly to traditional newspapers. To its credit, the Pulitzer committee did change the rules a few years ago, allowing online journalism to be considered. Thus, a number of winning entries have had significant online components. But – except for the two“breaking news” categories – the rules still require that stories appear in print as well as online.
Thus, online only-efforts are excluded – whether it’s investigative journalism on CNET.com; a feature story at Salon.com, commentary at the Huffington Post or Townhall, or straight news coverage at MSNBC.com. Even work for traditional newspaper’s online versions doesn’t qualify for most award categories, unless it is also in a version that can be folded. It’s as if awards were given for articles printed on “hot lead” Linotype machines, and not for digitally typeset pieces.
As online journalism continues to grow, the Pulitzer committee’s rule – like the FCC’s newspaper rule — is becoming increasingly hard to defend. For now, however, the rule may be a welcome one for print newspapers, who have less competition for awards. Even if they read about the winners on their desktop PC.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.